Sep 17, 2009
Every now and then it's important to call a tool a tool. Harry Schumacher, publisher of Beer Business Daily, is a tool. If you want to see what can be produced by a good tool, go here: Beer Business Daily. Now I have no problem with someone making themselves a tool of an industry. It's a legitimate career choice, though not one I'd want for my children, for whom I would hope for a life of dignity. Still, it's a…
Sep 17, 2009
Alawine.com says this blog, this little old blog, is the number 1 wine blog on the net based on their super secret algorithm that looks at page rankings and links and such. While this makes about as much sense to me as a Cabernet Blush, I'm going to choose to believe it today, or at least until Alder Yarrow at Vinography, Eric Asimov at The Pour and Tyler Colman at Dr. Vino lodge their appropriate and sensible protest of the…
Sep 12, 2009
Why don't they just report there were carnivorous worms found lurking in bottles of Austrian Gruners. It would have the same effect on me as this headline: "Terrified Whisky Workers Find Venomous Black Widows lurking in Casks" Great. But you want to hear the worst thing about this story of workers at a Scottish cooperage that had to deal with dirty, ugly, poisonous, scary, deadly spiders in barrels? It's this: "Sub-contractors at the plant unload old wine barrels which are…
Sep 10, 2009
Today Palate Press launches. This venture, called a blogazine by its editor W. R. Tish, attempts to coral some of the top blog voices in the business to produce not an aggregation of content, but a wine web site that delivers original content with a distinctly blog-oriented voice and perspective. This is an idea that I've been approached with or consulted on by various folks, most of whom have in the the back of their mind the idea that some…
Aug 31, 2009
I feel about wine-related art the same way I feel about the "Whale Art" one is subjected to in galleries along the California coast and particularly prevalent in the various art outlets in Carmel and Monterey, California: I am generally untouched and unmoved. Art and wine have been forever linked ever since marketers discovered that while in "Wine Country" visitors were in a mood to take something less consumable home with them that reminded them of the uniqueness of the…